Brief encounters, life-altering adventures, and lasting memories from travelers who have struck out on their own.

The Maine Event

Twenty years ago, after an impossible romance, I went on a trip by myself. I took a windjammer off the coast of Maine and ended up on Monhegan Island. My first day there, while walking on a path high above the ocean, I looked down and saw a man in the distance, sitting on a rock by the sea. I had always been the kind of person who, if I saw an attractive man across a crowded room, I'd turn and go in the other direction. And I thought, Should I step off this path? Should I go down there and meet that man? I did. I climbed down the side of a steep cliff, walked up to the man—and met my future husband. I remember how amazingly blue his eyes were.